1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for wrapping hanger mounted garments in bags, closed on the sides and across the top excepting for an opening to pass the hook of the hanger.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Apparatus for bagging garments is well known in the art. Clear polyethylene is usually employed as the wrapping material. It is inexpensive and readily available, protects well, is easily cut by melting using a heated edge, and may be sealed to itself by controlled pressure and heat.
Small users can obtain rolls of flattened polyethylene tubing pre-formed into bags which may be torn free one at a time and placed by hand over a hanger mounted garment. Manual fixtures are available to assist in the bagging. One is disclosed in Jelling, U.S. Pat. No. 3,287,881, and another in Masters, U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,601.
High volume establishments wrap from rolls of flattened polyethylene tubular web, supplied in continuous form without tear or seal lines, and do the forming of heat seal lines and the cutting to length as part of an automatic or semi-automatic bagging operation. One apparatus to do this is disclosed in Vanderpool, U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,377. Another is disclosed in Lombardo, U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,480. A third machine has been offered for sale by Better Methods, Inc. of Secaucus, New Jersey. The Better Methods apparatus is quite similar to the bagger disclosed in Lombardo. Better Methods is the closest known prior art to the present invention.
To use the Better Methods bagger, an operator first places a hanger mounted garment on the machine and then steps on a foot switch, which starts the machine. The machine automatically forms a bag in place on the garment, which the operator takes away. To reset the machine, the operator again steps on the foot switch, which causes the machine to return to starting position.
A roll of polyethylene tubing is supported in a holder which is controlled by use of an adjustable friction drag device. In this way, the roll is prevented from continuing to spin after completion of pulling a length of tubing. The amount of frictional drag necessary to avoid over-spin reduces continually as the roll mass diminishes, so frequent adjustments are necessary, particularly towards the end of a roll. The Better Methods machine applies this frictional drag at all times, including during pulling of tubing, so if the drag is adjusted too high, tubing may be torn or stretched. Too little friction results in overspin. The frequent adjustments are inconvenient.
Better Methods supports the roll horizontally and near the floor. The tubing is passed from the roll up and over a free-spinning horizontal roller, forward to and over another free-spinning horizontal roller, and down between two rubber-covered motor-driven rollers, fore and aft and parallel in a horizontal plane. Within the tubing at this point a four-roller cradle straddles the two driven rollers, one cradle roller just above and one just below the horizontal plane pressing against each driven roller through the tubing wall. When the driven rollers are operated, tubing is drawn from the supply roll.
A support hook depends centrally from the cradle to receive the hook of a hanger on which is mounted a garment to be bagged. Depending from the cradle fore and aft are two hinged "barn door" spreaders that are biased to swing open, which serve to keep the tubing open so that it can be pulled over such a garment.
One problem with this cradle design is that each time the machine is set up with a new roll of tubing, the supporting driven rollers must be removed, or at least spread apart, so that the four-roller cradle can be disposed straddling the supporting driven rollers and within the tubing.
Secondly, friction of the rubber-covered driven rollers against the polyethylene tubing may create static charge on the surface of the tubing which causes it to cling and so to be hard to handle. Since these rollers are driven, and necessarily so, the rubber covering is needed to prevent uncontrolled slippage. No simple solution is available such as electrically grounding the metal-surfaced cradle rollers, because of their inaccessability within the tubing.
The Better Methods machine has a carriage moveable downwards from a position just below the motor-driven support rollers and back up in return. It carries grips to engage the left and right sides of the tubing hanging from the crandle and held open by the spreaders. When tubing is to be drawn over a garment hung on the support hook, the grips sieze the tubing, the driven rollers and the carriage are both operated, each advancing tubing at the same rate as the other until enough tubing has been drawn, and then both stop.
The Better Methods bagger uses conventional electric motors, gearboxes and clutches to drive the carriage and the support rollers. Each time a motor is engaged, for example to pull a new length of tubing, there is a sharp impulse which jolts the mechanical components and may stretch or tear the polyethylene tubing.
To cut a tube length free after it has been drawn over a garment, and to form a heat seal line across the top above the garment, Better Methods provides separate cutting and sealing clamps above the garment position but below the cradle and its spreaders, with the cutting clamp uppermost. These clamps carry metal ribbons placed where each cut or seal is desired, and the ribbons may be heated electrically. The cutting ribbon remains hot all the time, but the seal ribbons are only heated briefly when a seal is to be formed. In operation, the seal clamp closes first, which serves to hold the tubing in place. Then the cutting clamp with its hot ribbon closes to sever the length of tube free just above the sealing clamp. A controlled electric current pulse then is supplied to each seal ribbon just sufficient to effect the seals. Then the clamps open.
Since the hook of the garment hanger extends through and beyond the seal of the completed bag, these clamps are in the vicinity of the support which receives that hook. The clamps are arranged to open widely, but the fact that the cutting ribbon is always hot presents a burn danger to an operator reaching up to place a hanger mounted garment on the support.